


Pink Elephants

by IBeMandaPanda



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: 1986, Action, Adventure, BAMF Joyce Byers, BAMF Nancy Wheeler, Christmas 1986, El doesnt give up, Gen, Harringrove, Hurt Billy Hargrove, M/M, Multi, Mystery, Neil Hargrove (mentioned) - Freeform, Neil Hargrove's A+ Parenting, Post-Season/Series 03, Prisoners, Vomiting, experiment!billy, hopper and billy live, incorrect borders, lasertag, mentions of torture, sorry alexie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-23 21:53:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20235610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IBeMandaPanda/pseuds/IBeMandaPanda
Summary: A one shot depicting Hopper and Billy's survival.





	Pink Elephants

_“Sir! She’s trying to breach the containment again…”_

_“Is she making any progress?”_

_“Yes, she’ll be able to bleed through soon and make contact. What do we do?”_

_“…………………….”_

_“Sir-”_

_“… Give her what she wants…”_

_“Sir?”_

_“Prep 017…”_

* * *

El sat patiently on Joyce’s new pastel green couch, knees in the cushion leaning over the back and staring out of the big bay window. It was a cold and breezy Monday morning. She appreciated the lace curtains for their transparency, one of her new words, and they looked pretty. Joyce did her best to continue her home schooling but it was, according to Will and Jonathan, Christmas break and the Party (and affiliates i.e. Steve, Nancy, and Robin) were on their way here.

Joyce decided to move the family, El indefinitely included, to Avon, Indiana. It was small suburb just outside of Indianapolis. She had promised her sons that a man named Lonnie wouldn’t be a problem for them. This man had been evicted from his previous home and found low income housing near Cleveland. El didn’t know what that meant but did learn that Lonnie was their father and a bad one at that.

She felt the cushion beside her sink. “El?” Will asked.

“They’re late,” she informed him, “Mike said 12 O’clock.”

“It’s only 12:15, they’ll be here soon, I promise. They would’ve called if they ran into trouble or something.”

She sat down huffing and knowing he was right. She doubted they were in trouble to begin with, she was more bothered that they did not arrive at the designated time she was told over the phone last week. It has, after all, been a calm year and a half since their last major crisis. 1986 had delivered peace to this once afflicted group of individuals.

“Why are you so anxious?” Will asked her.

She shrugged, “It’s been a long time.”

He smiled, “Thanksgiving was only a little over a month ago.”

She nodded grinning. He asked her, “You still wanna’ play lazertag, right?” Again she nodded a little more enthusiastically.

During the summer of last year Will taught her how to play tag. It involved a lot of running that left her limbs buzzing. Joyce said it was good exercise for them. When the Party had visited during that time, Mike said Tag was for small children. Max told him to shut his mouth. They played with El all day that day. Mike has since then started to grasp the idea that El was trying to relive a childhood that was wrongfully stolen from her. She was lucky to have Will and Jonathan who humored her all she wanted. Joyce had even gotten her a 16 piece Precious Moments Tea Set last Christmas. She loved the oversized heads and large eyes of the characters; they were adorable and Joyce said every girl had a tea set, used or not. She used it.

But lazertag was a brand new and hot item on the shelves of every electronics store that everyone could get behind. Everyone got their packs and guns for Christmas this past weekend and were on their way here now with them. Dustin said Steve and Robin even got one. El didn’t think Nancy would want one. She fires real guns and would probably wipe the floor with everyone anyway. Jonathan wasn’t one for strenuous activities so Will says.

So yes she was excited for lazertag but she was more so for the fact that her telekinetic abilities were slowly but surely returning. The strength of her power was weak compared to a year and half ago but just three months ago she was able to step into the void again. The first person she found was Max. She was sitting in Billy’s room again which had been converted to Billy’s fathers home office since his death. Max liked to look out the same window her step-brother once did.

During the Party’s visit on Thanksgiving, Max broached the idea of trying to contact the dead. She was desperate to know if Billy was ok in the afterlife. El could see the boys roll their eyes not being Billy’s biggest fan but said nothing out respect for their Zoomer. El said she would try, she would try and find Billy **and** Hop.

El had been mostly unsuccessful that night and Max took her class picture of Billy home with her. El still had Hop’s picture along with all of his stuff. She cherished all of it. She would sometimes spray Hoppers Stetson cologne on his old shirts and take it to bed with her. She would always dream of him and it was the closest she could get to her dear old Dad.

Max’s idea had since prompted El to try again with locating Hop in the afterlife. The afterlife is what Will called the place people’s souls go when they die. He wasn’t totally sure but he thinks the afterlife is peaceful place where people go to be happy. El wanted Hopper to be happy. She wanted to be sure of it.

So she would black out her eyes with an old bandana and meditate to the static on her portable radio. She would run in the void for hours and sometimes Will or Joyce or even Jonathan had to pull her out and tell her ‘give a rest, try again tomorrow’. She could almost feel Hopper in the void but she just couldn’t see him. He was there, she knew it. Joyce said maybe it was just her mind playing tricks and El told her she felt Hopper with her heart, not her mind. Joyce cried like she did back in January when the space shuttle exploded with all 7 passengers perishing with it. It was soft and feeling and silent.

But a few weeks ago, shortly after Thanksgiving break, El had a breakthrough. She held Hop’s cowboy cologne soaked shirt tight to her chest and concentrated with her entire being. She didn’t exactly make contact, but she could have sworn up and down that she heard his voice; faint but it was there. He was talking to someone telling them they didn’t look too hot. But she lost the connection.

El waited until morning to call Max and tell her the news. Max was immediately excited and El asked her to bring something more than a picture with her when she visited next. Max said she would bring Billy’s necklace of Saint Flora. The redhead explained that St. Flora was the patron saint of the abandoned and El made Billy’s connection to it quick. She thought it was sadly ironic that Billy’s mom had given it to him just before she disappeared.

“Hey El,” Will nudged her, “they’re here.”

She bounded to her knees again looking through the lace curtains. Two cars had pulled up and the people within were exiting with bags.

Joyce walked into the parlor leaning to peer through the curtains as well, “I guess the gangs all here. El how about you open the door for them, Will go get your brother. I’ll get the snacks ready.”

They stood to do as they were told. El practically skipped to the door throwing it open and letting her guests inside. Will came back out with Jonathan who immediately crowded into Nancy’s space. El thought they were like magnets to each other. Joyce didn’t hang magnets on the refrigerator anymore.

Mike was hugging her in an instant. “I missed you,” he told her.

Her smile was bright, “I missed you too.”

She was plucked from Mike arms as Dustin gathered her up in a bear hug. She laughed as her feet left the carpet.

Steve pushed at his shoulder, “Hey easy, don’t break the lady.”

Dustin laughed putting her down, “My bad.”

El hugged Max as Max whispered in her ear, “I have his necklace. I had to sneak it out of my mom and Neil’s room.” El remembered Billy’s memories of his dad and his abusive tendencies but Neil grieved over his son like any decent father would and had a little shrine on the mantle in the living room and on his bedroom dresser. Neil looked at Billy’s picture every morning before he left for work. Max said she never saw him shed a single tear for Billy though and said ‘that asshole probably just misses his punching bag’. El didn’t think that was the case but kept her opinion to herself. 

Everyone shuffled and stacked their overnight bags in the corner of a guest room down the hall and discussed sleeping arrangements. The house was small but they didn’t mind. This particular group had shared trauma and a lifetime worth of love for each other even beneath all of the bickering and arguing. Joyce approved of Mike staying in El’s room so long as he was on the floor with her in her bed and someone else was in the room. Robin volunteered herself and Steve much to Mike’s dismay.

Once the room settled to calm speaking levels and Joyce finished passing around snacks to compensate their two hour journey, Will took the spotlight. “Did everyone bring their lazertag gear?”

Lucas was more than excited, “Hell yea! Your backyard is gunna’ be perfect for it.”

Dustin was already pulling out his equipment, “I got mine in black and-“

“Wait!” Max interrupted, “before we do… can we try-“

Lucas stepped over her words sighing, “Right now? We’ve been waiting three days for this.” They had all refused to try their new lazertag packs without each other since receiving them as Christmas gifts Friday morning.

Her hands were on her hips and her cheeks flushed in annoyance. El stood confidently next to her and put her foot down, “Yes, right now.”

Joyce looked sympathetic, “Are you sure hon? You were doing that…” she made a vague hand gesture, “all last week.”

El countered, “I rested two days for this. We do it now.” Max said she would be right back to get the necklace.

Robin elbowed Steve, “What’s going on now?” Nancy looked to him for answers as well. This was apparently not a shared secret.

Steve sighed at their fruitless attempt to continuously contact the dead but continued regardless. “El has been trying to contact Hopper and Billy in the afterlife, so Dustin says.”

Robin’s eyes went wide, “Wow, she can do that? She can talk to the dead?”

Jonathan answered, “We didn’t think so but El said she was really close to talking to Hopper a few weeks ago.”

Robin paused after processing who was being contacted and whispered to Steve, “Are you ok?” He nodded paying more attention to the detail of the carpet then the group. Only Robin knew Billy Hargrove was a hard subject for Steve, nobody else seemed to notice.

As El waited for Max to return, she turned on the TV to a blank station and adjusted the volume for the white static. She sat in front of the TV with her back to it and facing the crowd, grabbing her bandana from the ledge of the television stand and tying it about her eyes for cover. She felt the necklace gently placed in her right hand and slowly but surely drifted into the void.

Robin stage whispered, “What happens now?”

Dustin, who was sat on the floor in front of the teens on the couch answered quietly, “She’s concentrating and going into what she calls the void to look for them. That’s how she sees people.”

Mike hushed them as Will whispered from his place next to Dustin, “We all need to be really quiet and still so we don’t make any noise and break her concentration.”

Even though Lucas was a little annoyed at having lazertag postponed, he still sat with Max on the floor in front of El holding her hand trying his best to be supportive of his girlfriend.

Nancy noticed El’s nose begin to bleed lightly and leaned toward Robin over Steve on the couch, “I think she’s there.” Jonathan and Joyce nodded in agreement.

* * *

El scoured familiar territory of the black vacuum and flooded ground. She ambled about calling out to Billy over and over. She walked for what felt like miles; her throat itching from repetitiously calling out for Max’s dead brother. Like an emotional sonar she kept steady in one direction, a feeling she could not describe pulling her further in. She tread lightly and cautiously, this beacon pulsed and was live like electricity.

“Billy? ...Billy?”

This burden of a feeling was at its height like she had arrived where she needed to be. Stopping her campaign she spun about looking far in the obsidian distance.

She felt a hand clap her shoulder.

“Billy?!”

She twisted around and the void was gone.

She was decamped and somewhere else completely. She combed her new surroundings frantically, this wasn’t supposed to happen. This has **never** happened before! Someone else was in control. She was on a beach and it was eerily familiar.

“Billy?” she called out again.

“El!”

She turned about fast enough to nearly lose her balance. She saw him. He was really here, standing far off into the distance and she ran to him, “Billy!”

* * *

“Billy?” El spoke softly, “Billy…”

Joyce watched patiently standing ever so still, “That didn’t sound like a question…”

Dustin was practically bouncing off the floor, “Holy shit, I think she found him!”

Max was on him in an instant hissing, “Be quiet before she loses him!”

Dustin mouthed an apology seeing the tears in her eyes ready to make a break for it. Lucas kept holding her hand while Robin held Steve’s.

* * *

El ran as fast as her feet could take her in the sand. She had to fight the urge to reach out and touch him, she did not want to risk losing him in the nihility. “Billy, I…. found you.” She eyed him up and down. This was not the same Billy that died in Starcourt mall; he looked different standing before her bare chested in grey pants and bare feet. For starters, his dearly beloved golden curls were gone.

“You’ve been trying to reach me,” he told her.

“Yes.”

He sat slowly in the sand and motioned her to join him. She was prudent as she lowered herself to her knees beside him, eyes heedful to his gaunt face.

She asked, “Is this… the afterlife? Is this where people go after they are done with life?”

He smiled looking at her, “This is heaven.” El didn’t think she had ever seen Billy smile like that before.

“What?”

“This is heaven,” he repeated. He began writing in the sand between them. “Me and Hopper are here.”

‘He means Hopper and I...’ Joyce’s home schooling interrupted her momentary thought process. She felt her chest tighten, “Wait… Hop? He’s here?”

He looked away from the sand and into her pleading eyes, “Yeah.”

“Why can’t I reach him? Why isn’t he here now.”

“Hopper is still acclimating.” He continued writing; they were numbers.

“Ak…li-mating?” she sounded it out, this was certainly a new word for her.

He stopped writing again, “Acclimating, it means getting used to something or somewhere. He’s still adjusting to here,” his finger moved like pen to paper in the sand once more, “Do you remember where I said here was?”

She answered, “Here is heaven.” Why did he need her to know that?

“That’s right… and do you know where heaven is?” He was looking her in the eyes. She hadn’t realized she was crying.

She shook her head no. He pointed to his writing in the sand without verbally acknowledging it, “Heaven is right here,” he pointed to the numbers again, “Can you remember that? Can you remember where heaven is?”

She studied the numbers diligently. “Yes,” she told him.

“Me and Hopper are here,” he pointed to the numbers again, “… in heaven. This is where we are, El. Ok?”

She looked back into his stormy, cobalt eyes, “Yes, I understand.” Kind of…

“Good.” There was a loud clap of thunder as lightning stuck the water before them. The waves were becoming relentless. “I have to go,” he told her. He stood and she mimicked him. “Wait Billy, I have more questions-“

“Tell Max I’m sorry ok? Tell her I’m doing my best to watch over her.”

The wind was picking up and the world around them was falling apart. The sky began to crumble like shattered glass and puzzle pieces. She knew what it was like to be in the eye of a storm, but she had not traveled through it.

“Ok but-“

“I’m sorry, hopefully you’ll see us soon.”

* * *

El tore the bandana from her eyes panting leaning over to her side, elbow to the floor. She needed to move or stay still, she didn’t know, her body was reacting against its own natural instincts. She felt arms around her holding her up and hushing her. It was Mike.

“You’re ok, I’ve got you,” he told her. Her breathing slowed and Joyce kneeled before with a cool rag for her head, tissues for her nose. She accepted both graciously sitting up right again. Her breathing slowed considerably.

Mike rubbed circles on her back, “You were out for a while, are you ok?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” she told him and more so the group before her who all modeled varying levels of concern.

Once her breathing was paced evenly and the cold sweat had dried and matted, Max asked, “Did you see him? We only heard you say his name…”

She looked about the group, “Yes, I saw him. I spoke to him.”

Dustin was up on his feet, “Holy shit this amazing! This is crazy!”

Steve looked away.

Will asked, “What did he say El?”

She heard his question, “Max,” the girls cheeks were flushed and her eyes almost as red as her hair, “Billy said he’s sorry. He’s doing his best… to watch over you.”

That was enough to break the damn and she crumbled in on herself, Lucas holding her as best he could. She glanced up, a soft smile on her face, “Thank you El.”

El reached over and held her hand, “Anything for friends.”

“El,” Dustin butted in dropping to the floor sitting on his haunches once more, “What else was there? Where were you? What did you see? What else did he say-“

“Dude!” Mike shouted, “Give her a minute.”

El relaxed back feeling Max gain a bit of control over herself again. She wanted to keep an eye on Max, especially after what she was about to tell everyone.

“We were on a beach. It was in California from his memories. I saw the…” What was the word for it again? “…pier… behind him.”

Nancy asked, “The afterlife is one’s memories? That was his happiest memory right?”

“Yes, but…”

Max leaned in, “But what?”

El had to look away from her. She didn’t know for sure, but the entire experience could not be brushed under the rug. There has to be more to it.

“He looked different.”

Mike crept closer to her, his arm around her shoulder, “Different how?”

She looked into a sea of expectant eyes, “His hair was short. Like mine used to be.”

Will asked, “Shaved? His head was shaved?”

“Yes. He was smaller… skinny.”

Robin spoke in general, “From what I vaguely remember, Billy Hargrove wasn’t fat but he wasn’t skinny either.”

Steve concentrated on his wringing hands, “Dude was built like a brick house. He hit like one too…”

“He had scars,” El told them.

It felt like everyone knew what scars she was talking about but Joyce persisted, “Scars, honey?”

El motion around her upper abdomen and back. “And here,” she said pointing to her chest.

The room was forebodingly silent. Nobody wanted to say but they were all thinking the same thing.

El decided to voice the general consensus, “I think Billy is alive.” It seemed like everyone had to lean back to give the notion the space it was demanding.

Jonathan broke the silence like a glass pane, “But Billy was buried, we were all there for the service,” he looked at Max, “You saw his body right?”

“No,” She told him, “The service men in the Coroner’s office said his body was too far gone after the fire. I believed them because we saw them set fire to the mall after I grabbed his necklace for the cover story. I didn’t question it, none of us had a reason too.” They could tell she was beginning to blame herself for not looking closer if he was indeed still among the living realm.

Nancy nudged her boyfriend, “It **was** a closed casket service… I mean, is it really that farfetched? We have all seen stranger things.”

Will shrugged, “Maybe they pulled a ‘Me’ and buried a fake body so the casket had weight.”

Joyce began pacing, “But how could Dr. Owens not know about this? Or does he…. You know… I never trusted that guy.”

Max tried her best level her voice before she could possibly burst into tears again, “Forget Owens, if Billy’s alive, then where is he?”

Billy’s in heaven.

The numbers.

El stood up leaving a stunned Mike in her wake. She walked to the end table of the couch the telephone sat on and grabbed the pad of paper and a pencil. She took her seat next to Mike again; all eyes still on her. She jotted down all the numbers Billy had asked her to memorize.

She handed the pad to Dustin, “What does this mean? Billy wrote this in the sand and said this is where heaven is. He said he and Hopper are in Heaven.”

Joyce immediately reacted, “Hopper? Billy is with Hopper?”

“Yes. If Billy is alive, I think Hop is alive too.”

Dustin looked over the numbers reading them aloud, “45.5626221, -81.4692764….. Holy shit… guys…”

Lucas snagged the pad from his hands, “I’ll be damned…”

Robin had been squeezing poor Steve’s arm in pure excitement and trying her best to comfort him ever since El uttered that Billy was alive, “What?! What is it?!”

Lucas handed the pad to Mike. Mike skimmed it, “It’s a geodetic datum coordinate!”

Steve looked about his similarly IQed friends, “I-I don’t know what that is…” Nancy shrugged.

Dustin translated, “Its longitude and latitude coordinates. These numbers specify a single point on Earth.”

Jonathan was out of his seat and rushing to his room, “I’ll get my globe.”

Joyce was looking over Dustin’s shoulder, “These seem really specific, and I don’t think a globe will be too much help…”

Will looked over the pad as well, “But we can get close. We can get an estimate at least if they’re both alive and here,” he pointed to the numbers.

Jonathan returned without a wasted second plopping the globe on the ground in the center of the boys. If anyone would know how to read those coordinates, it was them.

The boys diligently skimmed the globe, all four bickering for control. They finally all settled for 45°N and 80°W as the closest they could get.

Steve leaned in, “Is that Canada? Are you saying they’re in Canada?”

Dustin addressed the present company, “It’s most likely somewhere in the Georgian Bay, maybe one of these islands near the coasts. These are extremely specific directions. We need something to dial this in and get an exact location.”

Joyce crossed her arms, “Maybe instead of getting something… we can ask someone…”

Jonathan dropping his face in hands, “Please not him… he gets so overworked.”

She smiled sheepishly, “Sit tight guys, I’m gunna’ call Murray…”

* * *

Jim Hopper paced a beaten path into the stone floor of his cell. They had taken the kid out of the cell over an hour ago and he had been somewhat, not really, patiently waiting ever since.

They had telekinetic radio silence for well over a year by his estimate. It was hard to tell time with no windows; he only had his sleep schedule and feedings at his disposal. He thought El would have found them much sooner or at the very least reached out to him. As time passed he was convinced she didn’t bother to try because the world might have thought he was dead. It wasn’t her fault. He spent most of his time alone in a single cell with a thick steel door trying every which way to get out.

Every once in a while a few Spetsnazes would drag him from his cell to what looked like a second rate operating theater and started injecting him with substances that boiled his blood and seared his skin. He had glanced through the glass window of the gallery of the theater and none other than Dr. Brenner, who was by no choice of his own, handcuffed to the desk in front of him. Hopper could only assume he’s been here much longer than he was. Hopper wanted to jump through the glass and break his fucking neck but the straps that held him in place limited his physical ability and want to do so. He had overheard soldiers speaking, trying to translate with his shoddy Russian lessons from the past six months or so, about an American who was flown in from Kamchatka, Russia. He guessed this was him and also assumed that was how the Ruskies knew of the gate in Hawkins, Indiana in the first place. That scheming bastard.

He had received a handful of beatings to try and activate some kind of other worldly manipulation that he just didn’t have. He realized soon enough he was a failed experiment. He promptly realized he would probably disappear like all of the other prisoners.

That was until this camp’s upper chambers were raided and one Billy Hargrove was thrown into his cell to hide him. Nothing must have come of the raid because they were still here. Hopper didn’t immediately recognize him, especially without the mop of hair, but Billy knew who he was. Apparently He had pulled Billy over once upon a time and told him to slow the hell down and quit trying to charm his way of the shit he stepped in. That certainly sounded like something he would say. Billy then mentioned he had a blue 1979 Camaro and Hoppers memory was triggered immediately. It was a beautiful car, how could he forget that?

Billy and Jim talked and/or argued about anything and everything in between Billy being removed from the cell (the kid was deemed at a successful enterprise, i.e. Brenner apparently did something right) and returning beaten half to death and sick to his stomach. The camp was stingy with food so Hopper did his best to help Billy through his dry heaving in the hole in the corner that seconded as a toilet. He tried getting Billy to keep down as much food as he could. The guards must have realized their connection and decided to spare Hopper’s life because of it. They were then indefinitely paired together now.

They had a quip about how Billy, through one of his fleeting moments of clarity after being stabbed through the chest, thought he was being rescued by government officials only to hear the men speak in Russian. Hopper said it was ridiculous and Billy told it was no more ridiculous then Hopper falling over a railing from the explosion of the key to the gate. He wasn’t exactly wrong. Hopper removed the subject from himself laughing at the face Owens must’ve had losing a dead body and could only imagine the cover story he cooked up.

Billy had later, a few weeks ago now, told him about his father and he told Billy about his. It soon turned into a pissing contest of whose father was a bigger asshole. Hopper reminisced how his father had one time locked him out of the house and made him sleep in his car. Another time his old man caught him smoking cigarettes and decided to lock then 16 year old Jim in his bedroom with a whole carton and wouldn’t let him out until the entire thing was gone. It amused Hopper now because it only fueled his nicotine addiction. Billy told him about how long ago he was dismissed as an altar boy back in California much his father’s eternal embarrassment in front of the entire congregation. Pastor Jakes was polite in saying Billy was just too spirited for the role but what he really wanted to say was that Billy was a little asshole who constantly shit on almost 2,000 years of Holy Scripture. Neil beat his ass right then and there in the parking lot of the Church.

They laughed at Neil Hargrove’s unequivocally reserved seat in Hell until Billy was pulled from the cell again. He wasn’t gone too long but Billy returned with a new tattoo on the inside of his wrist, the urge to vomit, and a bloody nose that reminded him of El. ‘Well I’ll be damned,’ Hopper said as Billy threw up his earlier meal and started his routine of dry heaving in the hole. This time seemed worse than the rest. ‘You don’t look too hot,’ he told him rubbing his back.

Once Billy calmed down and sat back up right Hopper was about to ask how he was fairing until a small voice popped into the back of his. ‘Did you hear that?’

Billy said he didn’t hear anything. Hopper could have sworn someone was calling his name. This pattern persisted for the next few weeks and Hopper was convinced it was his El reaching out looking for him. It wasn’t long before Billy said he could hear her too. They both knew the scientists above were picking up what the girl was putting down and were catching on.

The cell mates devised a plan of action for when El inevitably broke through, they had realized early on Billy couldn’t reach out from the cell and El couldn’t fully reach in. Hopper calculated their location from previously being walked and paraded about the building and eyeing maps throughout the corridors. Billy tried his damnedest to tear through the containment of their cell to make contact and relay the message; if El could do it, maybe he could too. But, it seems the men in charge unintentionally and heedlessly helped in a huge way. As they were pulling Billy from the cell, the guard spoke in clear English, “Somebody wants to speak to you,” and tapped him on his shaved head with a baton. The prisoners eyed each other, an apprehensive nod between them, before Billy was escorted away.

His thoughts were abruptly forgotten as his cell door swung open and body was thrown back inside. Hopper kneeled next to Billy rolling him over onto his back as the cell door was slammed shut and locked. His nose was bleeding fiercely along with his mouth. He must’ve bitten his lip landing on his face like that.

Billy moaned trying to sit back up against the wall, Hopper helped push him up.

“Was it her? Was it El?” Hopper asked insensately.

Billy dabbed a finger to the blood on his face, “Yea, I spoke to her.” He could feel his stomach start to spasm.

Hopper shot up standing excitedly, fist pumping, “I fucking knew it! I knew she wouldn’t give up on me.”

“Hop! She’s thinks were dead! She was trying to reach us in the afterlife.”

Hopper turned about, “But you gave her the coordinates I gave you right?”

“Yes but they were monitoring me, they could hear everything I was saying. I was trying to be as discrete as possible. What if she doesn’t understand? That was our **only** chance; this isn’t going to happen again!”

Hopper paced again, “No, she’ll get it. She’s smart as whip, I have faith in her.”

“You have to, she’s your daughter.”

“You’re god damned right she is,” he stopped, glaring, “She’ll get it. She’ll crack the code. Considering you didn’t fuck this up; you didn’t mix up the numbers right? We don’t need them somewhere in Iceland.”

“Fuck you, how do I know your coordinates aren’t bullshit? Who the hell builds a base in shithole Canada?”

Hop leaned on arm right above the sitting boy, “Look here kid. I’m a Vietnam Vet who traversed Nam and fought the Vietcong guerrillas using only geographic coordinates. I know what the hell I’m talking about.”

“You better hope so…”

Hop barked in laughter, “Or what? We both know your abilities are useless in here with that barrier they have!”

“I can still kick the shit out you in your sleep.” Billy rushed over to the hole and started throwing up.

Hopper back up still laughing to himself, “Kid… please…at the rate you’re going I could pick you up and snap you half.”

This is how most of their conversations went but this time the matter was critical. Hopper was just excited to make some kind of progress considering the amount of time they were here. He grabbed a dingy rag that sat on the opposing corner floor tossing it to Billy as the young man sat back upright. He caught it wiping his face of the vomit and nearly dried blood.

The chief stood tall, hands on his hips, sighing, “We’re gunna’ get out of here. Maybe I’m an optimist but after everything I’ve- **we** have been through, it’s the best we’ve got.”

Billy dropped his hands in his lap staring at the rag, “Yea I guess so… the fuck Hop, is this my shirt?!”

* * *

It only took Murray Bauman a matter of 36 hours to pin the location, make contact with leads, drive three hours, and end up on Joyce Byers doorstep frantically banging on her door.

Joyce pulled the door open with force, “Jesus Christ Murray! Its midnight! Quiet the hell down!”

“No time Joyce,” he rushed passed her and into the house making way for her dining room. He reached the elongated table and started spreading papers all about in the most unorganized fashion he somehow always navigated.

The loud disturbance woke most if not all of the sleeping bodies within, especially those who were already camped out in the living room. The group wasn’t too groggy, they had only hit the hay about an hour ago and were now congregating around the table. The kids sat while the adults stood about.

Murray finishing spreading his masterpiece of a trail around and laid his hands flat on the table leaning over it, “Alright ladies and gentlemen, here’s what we’ve got so far. Those coordinates you gave me are in fact in Canada but more specifically those **exact** coordinates are for an island in the Georgian Bay called Lonely Island.”

Dustin slammed his fist on the table, “I knew it! That’s what I said!”

Murray pointed his own nose before pointing to Dustin, “Right on the nose, kid.”

Jonathan interrupted, “So how do we know for sure anything is even on that island?”

“Glad you asked Mr. Byers,” Murray sifted through papers presented one in particular to the group, “This man here is Greg Sharski. He’s a Lightkeeper at Cabot Head Lighthouse. He enjoys deep sea fishing, or in his case deep bay fishing and docks his boat near the Cabot Head Provincial Natural Reserve. I reached out to him and he said he knew for sure something awry is going on, on that island. Whatever base is there has their own coast guards and foot patrol.” He presented more papers detailing accounts and blurry pictures. Where he got them in such a short time nobody bothered to question; it was Murray after all.

Joyce asked, “Who are they?”

Murray paused, “… I don’t know- But! I DO know that all these soldiers are indeed protecting **something** on that island. And what are the chances the girl gets these **exact** coordinates? The probability of that being in a coincidence is in the millions. I have no doubt in my mind Hopper and dirty white trash kid are there.”

Max uncrossed her arms offended, “Hey asshole!”

Joyce was quick to hold her back, “Murray, that’s her brother, be nice please!”

Murray shrugged off a half assed apology, “Sorry kid, but he lead about 30 people to their deaths.”

Max rebutted, “He was possessed by an interdimensional monster!”

Murray waved his hands in the air, “Whatever, it’s neither here nor there. Our current problem is how to we get the island?”

They were all silent and shrugged and one another. Lucas calmly offered, “By boat?”

The eccentric man laughed, “Adorable,” he slammed his hands on the table, “Wrong! That’s why I’m here… actually the boat part is technically right.”

Joyce could almost feel Jonathan’s eyes boring a hole in the side of her head. But she offered, “We can’t contact the Canadian police?”

Murray laughed, “And tell them what? We have a hunch two American citizens are being held prisoner on a Canadian island governed by Russians because a telepathic girl told us so?”

She sighed dramatically, “What about Owens?”

“Oh you mean the guy you just told me yesterday you didn’t trust? Yea let’s get him on phone, Joyce, good idea. He was at the mall, how do we know he’s not behind this?”

“Ok fine, damn it!”

Murray pushed more papers around, “Greg said they have the same patrol maneuvers every night. Once the coast guard leaves the north sector Greg sails in for an hour of night fishing; says that this is his secret spot that they inconveniently took over. But he also said there is a 45 minute window where the coast guards and foot patrollers are nowhere on the north end.”

El asked, “How do we get there?”

“I can reach out to Greg again and see if he can lend us his boat. But it won’t be able to fit everybody here. It’s a small fishing boat.”

“Not everyone is going,” Joyce told him hearing protest in the background. “No way! This is crazy dangerous and what if we’re wrong? What if we’re arrested for trespassing? Or worse!”

They quieted but El stood from her seat. “I’m going. I can fight. If I’m closer to Billy, I can find him in there.”

Murray crossed his arms, “Oh yea, she’s definitely coming.”

Nancy stepped forward, “I’m going too. I’m a great shot.”

Jonathan stood closer to her, “Then I guess that means I’m going too.”

“No,” Joyce said, “I think it should just be me and Murray. It’s the safest.”

Steve pushed off from his place on the wall, “We’re safer in numbers; I’m going.” This earned him questioning looks but Robin knew nothing was going to keep him here.

Dustin wasn’t having it, “I am not sitting here, I’m definitely going.”

Steve pushed him back into his seat, “No way. Everyone under 18 stays here.”

Max was not to be left behind, “He’s my brother, I’m going and I don’t give shit who says otherwise.” She had long since dropped ‘step’ from Billy’s endearing title.

Murray was intrigued with the fiery redhead, “I like your bravado.”

“Absolutely not! You **kids** stay here!” Joyce told them.

El stood next to Max, one mimicking the other crossing arms over their chests. She told her adoptive mother, “No. We go. Everyone else stays here.”

Mike was out of seat in an instant, “El! You can’t!” Her first protest to go was shut down by Joyce but he knew that determined look in her eye. Nancy shot him a look of ‘you’ll try and stop your girlfriend and not your sister?’. But it went right over his head.

Mostly everyone was up in arms arguing on who was going and who was staying besides Will and Robin who, in their owns ways, cared deeply about the situation but knew they didn’t contribute anything of value towards the mission and may only slow things down.

Joyce stuck two finger between her lips and whistled loud enough to silence the uproar. “Alright,” she started, “Me, Murray, Steve, Nancy, El, and Max will go. And that’s final! We go, we get them out, and get the hell home. Are we clear?”

The crowd nodded, they’ve all been on the business end of that specific tone of hers. “Good. Murray, how long will it take to drive to the lighthouse?”

“Well, that’s a bit of a loaded question. It’ll take about 9 and half hour to drive to route 6 which is the Canadian border. It’ll be a 20 minute walk through the woods assuming none of your gaggle of teenagers have passports, and I’ll ask Greg to meet us on the other side. It’ll be another 45 minute drive to the lighthouse and maybe another 2 hour boat ride to Lonely Island.”

Max asked, “So we’re really gunna’ cross the border illegally?”

Murray waved her off, “Its Canada, its fine.”

Joyce was deep in thought, “We need to time this to the minute if we want clear access to the building. But we need to leave asap for spare time.”

Steve broached a future situation, “Speaking of timing, won’t we need to get in and out before the foot patrol comes back around? Didn’t you say it’s only a 45 minute window?”

Murray leaned on the back of a chair looking at Joyce, “Shit, the kid with the gorgeous head of hair is right. There’s no way we can get in and out in 45 minutes and not be seen.”

“Thanks?” Steve asked.

El was tenacious, “We can figure it out on the way. We need to leave now.” Not a thing on this planet was going to stop her from getting her Hopper back.

Joyce agreed, “She’s right. We’re on a tight schedule, we need to leave. We’ll think of something.”

As disappointed as the boys were to be benched, they were sure to tell the others they would be here for back up. This sentiment in turn prompted that maybe the boys would stake out a local motel so they could be within closer range to help if need be. Murray, who was promoted from Bald Eagle to Iron Eagle, would be able to radio the lighthouse who in turn could call the motel where the Thunderbirds would be stationed.

Operation Labyrinth was a-go.

* * *

The ride to route 6 was anything but eventful. Because they drove through the night, most of everyone slept trying to preserve energy. In all they brought two cars. One reason was to get everybody there and second was to so the Thunderbirds had a ride to the border if things went sideways. Robin and Jonathan volunteered to drive since they would be hunkering down in the motel one mile from the rendezvous point with Greg.

They had arrived at the hotel, ate breakfast, then team Iron Eagle split off. Murray berated Steve for bringing his spiked bat to a gun fight and Steve told him where he could stick it. They traveled north and ditched the car along a dirt road. They proceeded to clear the tricky terrain of the woods and bypassed the border patrol meeting with Greg.

He was an older gentleman, potbellied and happy to help. They walked another 10 minutes to his car and he drove the remaining 45 minutes to the lighthouse. Overall, they made great time arriving on Cabot Head within 12 hours. They still had four more to get on the boat and out to the edge of the North side of Lonely Island. Before they left El had asked to borrow Greg’s portable radio. She wanted to see if her range had any effect on her ability to reach out to Billy or Hopper.

They all sat at the ground level of the lighthouse surrounding El as she blindfolded herself and began switching stations on the radio. Murray made it very clear to never breathe a word of this. Greg promised he wouldn’t, this is the most action he seen or even been a part of in years.

El shushed them.

* * *

Billy absentmindedly traced the new number dawning his inner wrist. 017. Hopper was asleep on his cot snoring to the high heavens like a fog horn. He was used to it by now but not enough to relish in it. He sat cross legged on his own cot, back against the stone wall and bare chested. This was one of the few times he would rather have his shirt on but it was covered in dirt, blood, and vomit so he opted for skin.

The low hum of the light above him came through in between Hoppers blessed silent breaths and snoring. Billy closed his eyes feeling the vibration of Hoppers breathless wailing and the low hum of the light. He could feel the air around him buzz and move in time with Hopper. He concentrated on El. If he could pin point her, he could maybe use her like a tether to reach out. He had already felt her mind and would not soon forget. This may be the missing piece he needed to break the containment around the cell.

The atmosphere pulsed in rhythm and he was beginning to see colors and shapes behind his eye lids.

Within that pattern, Hopper must have taken what he could only assume was an ungodly influx of air. The vibration was harsh enough to distort the image he was seeing into a crystal clear picture of El sitting cross legged on the floor surrounded by Joyce Byers, Steve, Max, Nancy Wheeler, a frantic balding man, and an older gentleman.

His eyes shot open and the image was still in front of him but for only a millisecond. It then collapsed within itself like a dying star without the Big Bang.

Billy leaned forward breathless as Hop rose to a sitting position. He looked over, “What happened? Your nose is bleeding.”

“I saw them. They’re close. I think they’re coming for us.”

Hop was fully focused now, “No shit? They’re here? You could see them?”

“No, I don’t know exactly where they are, but I saw a ‘Cabot Head Lighthouse Rules and Regulations’ list posted on the wall behind them.”

Hopper was sitting tall, feet planted to the floor, “Cabot Head…. That’s in the Georgian Bay. My old man used to take fishing trips there. They can’t be any more than an hour or two away from us.”

They could only stare at the other not wanted to jinx themselves. Neither were superstitious until this moment. They didn’t want to chance anything, absolute or not.

* * *

El sat cross legged and patiently listening to the white noise of the radio. She held Billy’s image in her mind’s eye trying to feel the world for him.

She could feel a connection forming, her reaching out to him. He must have picked up her signal as he was reaching back. But it was different. She couldn’t see him but she could feel him in a way. She felt what he was feeling. Light vibrations in the air around him in a rhythmic impression. It was like they were both blind folded trying to touch the others hands.

The light vibration grew in strength and sound and she felt in her core. She gasped in surprise, the feeling hit her like a brick wall. She pulled the bandana from her eyes looking passed the group who looked at her. And like a hole in the wall she saw Billy looking back at her just as shocked as she was.

Within half a second he was gone though. She jumped to her feet running toward where the image had just appeared. They all looked after her questioning her abrupt movement.

Joyce walked up beside her, “El?” she watched the young girl run her hands over the stone wall of the lighthouse. “Are you ok sweetie?”

El huffed backing away from the wall, “I just saw him. He saw me too. Right here.”

Steve asked, “You saw Billy?”

“Yes. Not like a dream. Like how I see you now. Real.”

Nancy asked, “What does that mean?”

Max was on her feet, “El, are you saying you created your own gate?”

She couldn’t possibly confirm or deny this. She had some time ago opened the gate to another world entirely so who is to say she couldn’t open a gate to another place within this world?

She could only shrug in response.

“It’s’ ok,” Joyce assured her, “But we need to get on that boat in the water ok?”

They all nodded in agreement.

The group followed Greg out of the lighthouse and to the shoreline where the boat was docked. It was a little sportster that wasn’t all that impressive (it was no ToddFather, that’s for sure) but would get them from point A to point B and that was what mattered.

They piled in as Greg instructed Murray how to operate the boat. He warned them about parking too far up on the shoreline of the island, the tides were somewhat unpredictable. He showed him how to run the motor, how to steer, how to slow down, and how to anchor. Murray chided him, the mountain of hubris that he was.

Greg waved them off and they began the approximate two hour journey to Lonely Island.

The journey was yet again uneventful but the conversation held some weight.

“What if we’re wrong?” Steve asked the group. The idea of Billy and Hopper being alive was too radical and marvelous. Monsters from the upside down? Sure, but Billy and Hop? Steve never really got what he wanted.

El looked at him with purpose, “We’re not,” she assured him. Anything else just didn’t bare thinking about.

Murray decided to broach the topic of their escape as it has yet to be touched on. “So, does anyone have any daring or fantastic ideas on how to escape?” He continued steering and eyeing the compass strung around his neck without looking up.

Joyce laughed at him, “What about getting in? We’ve never even seen the place. Who the hell knows how big it is or what we’re gunna’ find there… I think we’re better off improvising, nothing ever goes the way we plan anyway.”

“Oh good, well I’m glad we’re all heading in with no weapons besides ‘The Hairs’ homemade nightmare of a bat.”

Joyce grinned pulling a pistol from her waistband. Nancy pulled two from hers and one in a holster underneath her pant leg. She didn’t mess around.

Murray looked away from them, “I stand corrected…”

Max chewed her fingernails until they bled, “Maybe we should’ve thought this through more…”

Nancy rubbed her shouldler gently, “Would you feel better staying in the boat?”

“I’m not scared for me. If they are there and we find them… who knows what condition they’re in. What if we can’t get them out? What if we run out of time? What if we escape and then try and go back for them but they get moved because they know we’re onto them-“

“Hey, hey, hey…” Steve moved to sit next to her, “Calm down, ok? Those are… reasonable questions but, don’t forget we have El on our side. And with her powers mostly back, the odds **are** on our side.”

Max nodded. He had switched sides quickly. She thought maybe he was just saying that to calm her down or maybe reassure himself. She didn’t have time to dwell as they came to a stop. In the distance stood Lonely Island like a diamond in the dessert. Smaller ships crossed paths along its border. Murray scoped out the scene with binoculars saying that ships looked like small yachts, it was a somewhat clever disguise he guessed.

The ships drifted to separate sections after some time. Murray and Steve held oak wood paddles and starting rowing in. It was a little strenuous but it gave the advantage of silence and wasted time. Their vessel was hidden well behind distance and waves as the foot patrol stomped across the beach of the island.

Murray studied their uniforms carefully, “They look Russian.”

Joyce sighed, “Of course they are.”

The soldiers also looked half dead with boredom repeating the same steps they probably had for the last year or so. They were probably so used to not finding anything out of the ordinary they didn’t give two shit’s to look up and out into the water.

The foot patrollers walked like they were programmed and dissipated from the shoreline. Steve and Murray didn’t need to bark orders at the other as they simultaneously grabbed the paddles once more. They rowed as quickly and quietly as they could finally breaching the beach and sinking the bow of the boat into the sand. They all quickly jumped out and into the over abundant vegetation of the island.

Murray was quick to find large broken branches with leaves to cover the boat with. It looked oddly out of place but not impossible considering how close the plant life was to the water.

They continued inward toward the center of the island. There was no beaten path to follow so they minded their steps as best as possible. The island was relatively small so the ten minute walk fared well with everyone and they soon came up on the large cinder blocked building. The outside was painted a dark color to camouflage it. They crept silently alongside the building, the two youngest girls in the middle of the group, in a single filed line. They came to a door and Joyce looked it over.

The last time she snuck into a secret base, it was Russian and the doors had key card scanners. This door however was a typical industrial steel door with a typical doorknob. Joyce tried turning it but alas it was locked.

Max held up a finger signaling she had an idea. She pulled two bobby pins from her hair and bite off the protective plastic ends. She kneeled before the doorknob and stuck the pins inside. She was as quiet as she’d ever been doing this and felt around for the tumbler to click in its specified place. Billy had taught her how to pick locks a long time ago, one of his acquired skills she was thankful for. After the fifth click of the mechanism she held the pins in place and turned the knob.

Joyce grabbed the knob as Max’s hand slipped back to give her space. Joyce counted to 3 on her fingers then slowly pulled the door open just a crack. She peered down the long hallway and saw no foreign bodies within. Holding the door open she ushered everyone inside.

Nancy whispered as they neared an intersection, “How do we find them?”

Joyce shrugged, “I didn’t think that far ahead.”

Murray hushed them, “Shhh, someone’s coming…”

They all slide to the walls before the intersecting hallway and sat quietly behind stacked crates. Three pairs of footsteps tread lightly closer. El peered around the corner of the bottom crate to get a better look. Her breath hitched as she saw two guards ushering Dr. Martin Brenner.

She fell back against the wall and squeezed her eyes shut, tears falling freely. She began hyperventilating. Everyone tried staying as silent as possible while also attempting to comfort the young girl.

The guards made safe passage and the coast was cleared. Joyce was immediately on El trying her best to calm the girl down whispering, “It’s ok, he won’t get you, I promise!”

El was panting and sweating and her eyes were still squeezed shut. Her fists were clenched, knuckles white, “Promise?”

“Yes of course,” Joyce pulled her into a hug, “…always.”

Steve mouthed, “Who was that?”

Max and Nancy shrugged.

Joyce must’ve seen as she responded, “Dr. Brenner from Hawkins Lab, where El came from.”

El opened her eyes slowly, “Papa…”

They needn’t say more.

Murray asked, “Is she ok to walk now? Because I think we should go the way they came. They’re either taking him from a cell or to a cell. We should check the first way and if we’re wrong, track back the way they went.”

El nodded, her confidence coming back in slow waves, “Yes, let’s go.” She has come so far, she willed herself to not give up for Hop’s sake.

They slowly crept around the corner and proceeded onward. They stayed close to the wall in a line, Murray behind Joyce. She kept as quiet as she possibly could but couldn’t help but pick up a noise that sounded like scratching. They hadn’t ventured more than ten feet from the intersection when she stopped in her tracks, everyone else following suit.

She turned back to Murray, “Do you hear that?”

Murray listened and picked it up immediately as it was coming from his person. He glanced down at the compass that hung about his neck. The needle was spinning and reversing. “What the hell…?”

El looked at it from behind him, “Its Billy. He knows we’re here.”

Max asked, “What do you mean? He’s controlling the needle? How?”

El eyed her, “Papa. Billy is like me now.” El could put two and two together. She knew Billy had pulled her in the first time and knew he created that beach for them to talk in. She absolutely, without a doubt, knew he was different now.

Murray stood up straight when the needle stopped and pointed in the opposite direction, the same way Brenner had been led off to. “I guess he wants us to go that way.”

* * *

Hopper sat next to Billy on his cot, “Yes, use the compass, that’s perfect. I’ll help you guide them.”

Billy had immediately felt El’s presence the second they walked into the building. It was like they were in a bubble and her energy signature was bouncing off the walls. He tapped into the void and watched her panic at the sight of Brenner (or so that’s who Hopper had said it was from Billy’s irresolute description) but he couldn’t speak to her. He decided to get creative but he needed El’s help, unfortunately she wouldn’t realize it. He had to use her like a generator for himself. She would start feeling it soon so hopefully they were quick about it.

“Where are they now,” Hopper asked.

“They’re getting close to the stairwell.”

“Take the elevator down.”

Billy kept his eyes closed, “I don’t know who is going to be on the other side of that door when it opens.”

“Well we’re down five floors so you better make a decision quick. They traveled a long way to get here so I don’t know how much more energy she has to give.”

* * *

Murray stopped as the compass needle pointed left suddenly, “Alright everyone in the elevator.”

They clambered in one by one before the doors were even fully opened. Murray spoke to the compass, “Come on Tony Malone, what floor do we hit?”

The needle faced horizontal from the buttons. Joyce grabbed it from his hands, “Move.” His hands were up in mock defense letting her pass.

Joyce held the compass in front of the number one button. No response. She lowered it to the number two. The needle shook but did not respond. She repeated this pattern until she reached number five. The needle shot forward pointing right at it. She pressed the button without hesitation.

The elevator lurched and Steve flinched having a bad encounter with one a year and half ago. They descended quickly and he gripped his bat a little tighter. They stopped with a bounce and the doors slid open.

A man in a red uniform turned about. Before he could yell for back up Joyce gave him a swift kick to the groin while Nancy pulled out her pistol and whipped him unconscious. Murray nodded in approval, “Not gunna’ lie; that was a turn on.”

Joyce turned back disgusted, “There are children here!”

She then peaked out down the short hallway and did not see any other surprise visitors. “We must be in the lowest recess of the building, this place is deserted.” Nancy dropped to her knee and rifled through the guard’s belongings, “He only has a hand gun on him…” she didn’t hesitate to confiscate it from him.

They all stepped over the guard and walked into the large and spacious vacant room. There were two thick steel doors on each of the four walls, the needle pointed to the one in the far corner and Joyce led the way.

Arriving she looked the door over. Steve asked, “How do we get it open? I don’t think Max can pick that lock.”

There was a sudden banging from the other side of the door, “Joyce! Joyce, is that you?”

“Hop?” she asked.

“Yes! For the love of Christ open the door!”

El moved to the forefront, “Watch out,” she told them.

She raised both hands and tapped into her inner power. She concentrated on trying to rip the door from its hinges, visioning it flying open, picturing Hopper on the other side running toward her in a big hug. She wanted this reunion more than anything in the world. The door shook violently but alas did not open. The energy field around the entire building was hampering her power and Billy had drained her.

El dropped her hands to her knees leaning over and panting. She was wiped out.

There was a soft knock from the other side of the door, “El…”

Max held Steve’s hand teary eyed, “Billy?” Steve held hers just a tad too tight.

“El,” he said again, “I had to siphon some of your energy to get you here but listen, I’m going to give back ok? Use it. Open the door.”

“Ok.”

She caught her breath and stood tall. She raised her hands out front once more and closed her eyes. She felt for Billy’s tether only now it was a live wire. She could feel it pulsing and felt her unseen grip on the door pull harder. She groaned as she tugged harder taking a physical step back. With one final howl of anguish every door in the room was yanked open, slamming into the cinderblock foundation of the walls. Thankfully the rest were empty.

Max eyed Billy, shaved head and all, kneeling on the floor and hand raised as if it were pressed against the door. Hopper stood behind him fists clenched silently cheering on his daughter. Max pushed everyone aside and ran to him.

In a past life, they were not close. They more or less tolerated each other’s existence. But she had felt his missing presence and had a severe case of ‘you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone’ syndrome when he ‘died’. And now she knew they had a second chance as real siblings. From El’s telling’s, she knew in her heart that Billy’s perspective of the world had also shifted severely.

She held onto him about the waist just about knocking him over and cried. Billy was exhausted but hugged her in return with one arm, the other holding onto the door frame.

Hopper moved aside and out of the cell immediately gathering El into his arms and lifting her off the floor, “I knew it!” he kissed her cheek, “I never doubted for a second you’d find us,” he kissed her again, “That’s my girl!” She laughed holding him about the shoulders tightly and tearing up.

Max finally let go of her brother as he made eye contact with Steve. Nancy eyed the boy next to her too, “Steve, are you ok?”

He didn’t answer her. He smiled and walked up to Billy, cupping his face and kissing him. Billy held onto his elbows and didn’t fight it, after all this time he didn’t care who saw. Nancy was bug eyed, “What-“

Murray only laughed, “Well I’ll be damned.”

Steve separated and hugged Billy close, “You look terrible.”

Billy held on, “I know.”

Hopper slung an arm around Joyce’s shoulders as she asked, “Did you know about this?”

“Well hello to you too,” he said, her expression didn’t waver, “yea he mentioned it. What the hell is he doing here?” He nodded toward Murray.

She returned his half assed side hug and ignored his question, “It’s cute.”

Nancy smiled, happy Steve finally found his ‘Jonathan’. Max never saw this coming but… past occurrences made more sense now.

Billy pulled back holding Steve’s shoulders, “We gotta’ go.” He nodded in agreement.

“Ahem!”

Maybe the cells weren’t as empty as they thought.

They all turned to the opposing side of the room. Dr. Brenner walked slowly out from his cell. “Well now… You look well Eleven.” Of course he would instantaneously recognize his most prized possession.

Hopper felt El grip his arm and move behind him. He knew she was spent. She couldn’t defend herself. But he could and he’ll be damned if this sociopathic asshole even thinks he’s getting his hands on her again. Nobody hurts his daughter while he’s still breathing.

Hopper furrowed his brows and motioned to El, “Joyce.”

She got the hint and pulled the girl back.

Brenner stepped forward, his past mannerisms fleeting in his scrub-like attire. “What’s wrong Chief? Why so defensive?”

“Give me one good reason I shouldn’t beat the ever loving shit out you right now!”

“Because you’re on a tight schedule and time is running out. You can either waste precious time beating me or just simply let me follow-“

“Are you out of your fucking mind?!” Hopper screamed, “After what you did you El and countless kids? After what you did to him? It sucked seeing it up close just as much as it was hearing about it. You’re a sick fuck, you know that? You belong here!”

Brenner was not to be tested, “I have made great strides in the field of science and how unpredictable it can be-“

“Shut the hell up! You were in the business of spies and weapons!”

“She wouldn’t be who she is now without me!”

And that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Hopper wasted little to no time pouncing Brenner like a lion to prey. He was furious at this man’s past actions and now he thought himself as some kind of mentor to the children he kidnapped and experimented on? It was a no-go.

Hopper straddled Brenner on the floor, holding him in place by the shirt and throwing his fist into the man’s face with rapid-fire succession. Brenner’s head bounced on the concrete floor and Hopper could only see red. El was his whole world and this man was the reason for all of her pain.

Billy and Steve ran up on him pulling him up. Billy yelled, “Alright Hop, for fucks sake you’re gunna’ kill him.” They pushed him back and he was huffing out of breath. “Good…”

Murray clapped his hands like he just witnessed an encore performance. Nancy rolled her eyes and let go of the breath she didn’t realize she was holding, relieved it was over.

Brenner’s hand twitched as he bled profusely from his nose and mouth. Hopper moved to strike again but Billy shoved at his shoulder, “Hey, we gotta’ get the fuck out of here, leave him!”

The Chief shook his head like he was shaking the thought of murder from his mind. “Alright let’s go.”

Making their way back out with two more bodies would prove to be difficult. Nancy checked her wrist watch, they were running out of time. “We gotta’ hurry,” She told them.

They moved back to the elevator and stepped over sleeping beauty on the floor. Steve kicked the guard’s legs out of the elevator so the doors could close. The ride was smooth and Nancy felt the foreboding pressure of what waited on the upper levels. She nudged Hop tossing him a hand gun and pulled the pistols from her waistband aiming at the door. Hop followed her lead.

He wasn’t sure how she knew but there, in all their communist glory, stood three red soldiers as the doors opened. Before they could even spin about and pull their own guns out, Nancy and Hop fired one shot from each gun. Nancy hit two shoulders in the same location of two men and Hopper’s target got a bullet to the leg. He looked her over, “God damn girl. Ever think about police work?”

She smiled, “We’ll talk later.” They all rushed out and ran. Their cover had long been blown never mind the uniform on the ground radioing for backup.

Joyce ran ahead and pointed to the upcoming intersection, “Up there, that’s the hallway to the door!”

He trusted her word and they continued sprinting to freedom.

They reached the end and Hoppers kicked open the door. Everyone made it outside and Hop slammed it shut, he could he footsteps pounding the hallway floor behind them. “We gotta’ wedge the door shut!”

Steve swung his bat with all his might at the seam of the door. The nails had embedded into the door and frame. Soldiers from the opposite side started ramming the door, the bat slowed them down but wouldn’t hold for long.

Billy reached upward toward a thick oak tree. He grunted as he pulled on it feeling like a leash was just finally removed. His power pool was suddenly full on the outside of the building. The trunk snapped with a groaning creak and fell towards the group. The others fled but the tree broke on impact with the corner of the roof and slid down the cinderblock to meet the door on the ground pinning it closed.

“That works,” Hop said as he ushered the group along, “it’ll give us a little time while they go through the other side of the building.”

Their previous ten minute trek was reduced to five with everyone running to the shore. They hurtled fallen branches, dead debris crunching beneath their feet, and ignoring the cold bite of the crisp air. Billy being pumped full of adrenaline could barely feel the freezing air even bare chested and bare footed. He assumed the same for Hopper. At least Hopper still had a shirt.

They reached the edge and Murray pointed towards the piles of foliage that he left, “Let’s go, hurry!”

Joyce and Hopper got the hint and started tearing away the shrubbery and saplings only to find blank and empty space. “What the fuck?” Hop asked and turned back to Murray.

Joyce panicked, “Where the hell is the boat? Didn’t you anchor it Murray?”

“I.. uhh…”

Steve’s hands were in his hair tugging hard, “Are you shitting me right now?”

Murry was immediately defensive. He was not about to be berated by a teenager, “I wasn’t the only one on the boat, I didn’t see any you of people anchor it either.”

“You were driving it!”

While Murray was being screamed at by Steve and now Hopper, Billy pulled El aside.

His hand was on her shoulder and he leaned down to her level, “Hey, do you remember seeing me from the lighthouse?”

“Yes,” she told him.

He let go and stood tall, “It felt real right? Do you think we really opened a portal?” he was relying on her expertise, even after a year and half of practice he was still relatively new to this.

Hopper was right, she was indeed a quick study. She said, “Yes, and we can do it again. Together.”

“I’ll follow your lead.”

Nancy and Max caught the two sitting in the sand across from each other. Max asked, “What are you guys doing?” She tried her best not to panic and to ignore Hopper calling Murray a ‘fucking idiot-box’.

El looked up to her, “We’re going to open a gate. We’re going home.”

Billy, “More like the Best Western El said everyone else is at.”

Joyce had joined the conversation, “How?” The other men quieted and listened.

El let Billy explain, his vocabulary having a much broader range. “So, the way it was explained to me before, by Brenner when this was all just a theory, is that time and space are malleable. Time only flows in one direction,” he drew a few horizontal straight lines in the sand, “while space weaves in and around it, like fabric,” he then drew vertical lines representing space over the horizontal ones. “If El and I can create what’s called an astral projection of this fabric and pick the right section to tear open, we might be able to at least get off the island.”

Murray dropped to his knees completely fascinated, “That’s incredible! I mean it’s only a theory, by Albert Einstein none the less, but-“

“Shhh!” El hushed him. He stopped speaking without question or further interruption. Murray already knew El was a no nonsense kind of girl when it came to laying down on the wire.

Billy nodded indicating for her to take the lead.

El held up her hands about chest high and Billy copied her, his hands pressed to hers. He suddenly felt her thoughts filtering through his own and the image of a tall lanky boy with dark hair appeared. Billy knew this was Wheelers younger brother and apparently El’s boyfriend, that much was clear. He didn’t argue, there was a reason she chose him to act as their tether. Her emotional connection to him was undeniable compared to the rest of the occupants.

He felt the blood drip from his nose but did not linger, he didn’t need any distractions, no matter how insignificant. He saw the boy sitting on a bench, walkie-talkie in hand, bolted between rooms 16 and 17. Billy thought about the number in his wrist.

“Billy,” El hissed, “Concentrate.” She was reading his thoughts too.

He let go of the waves crashing on the shoreline, the number on his wrist and pounding feet of the soldiers racing up the shore line to catch them. He didn’t worry or panic, he followed El’s lead and put all of his energy into ripping the ever loving hell out of space-time.

He felt the air quiver and mold beneath his palms and could smell straight ozone. He saw the boy on the bench and reciprocated El emotions. Her fear, her joy, and her love and used it like fuel to funnel it into a single source of raw power.

He was and probably always will be amazed by this young girl.

They opened their eyes in the same moment seeing a transparent blur between them. They stood up at the same time, flexed their hands into fists gripping the drenching atmosphere and physically began pulling it. They each took a step back and pulled harder literally ripping apart the fabric of space and time.

* * *

Mike sat quietly on the bench outside of the motel. His fingers played with the antenna of his walkie out of pure nervous habit. He should’ve never let El, or Nancy, go on this mission. None even knew for sure that Hopper and Hargrove were even alive. But Mike had taken Max’s words to heart last summer and needed to let El make her own decisions. She was her own person and he couldn’t control her like he could a game of D&D. In the game, he chose what happened next and nobody got to tell him otherwise.

But he regressed, she didn’t need his bitching and crying, she needed his support. Nancy was a whole ‘nother story entirely. She was of age and responsible. He was surprised she bought into this entire situation so quickly. He thinks she has a new found attraction to danger and it was worrying to say the least. They may not always get along but she is his big sister and will be forever and always. Not that he would out right tell her that, but he knew it was an unspoken truth between them.

Door number 16 opened up and Dustin walked out. “You ok?” he asked Mike, “You’ve been out here for a while.”

“Yeah, I’m just… it was getting stuffy in there.”

Dustin watched him fiddle with the antenna again. “Be careful with that, don’t wanna’ chance breaking it.” He sat beside the other brooding teen.

“Sorry, I can’t help it. They’ve been gone for a while. It’s been too long, right?”

Dustin shrugged, “It’s only been about four hours. If anything they should be on their way back.”

Mike groaned, “But what if…. If…”

After a beat Dustin asked, “Mike? What’s wrong?”

Mike stared out into the parking lot and pointed, “Do you see that?” Dustin looked to where he was gesturing.

In the middle of the parking lot was a warping space of air hovering. “… yeah…. Yeah I see that…” He slowly slid off the bench and started banging on both doors, “Guys! Hey! Get the hell out here! Something’s happening!”

Mike ignored the crack in his friends voice and walked towards the swirl of ozone, with its edges becoming sharper and the ripples within fading like waves in water. He suddenly felt hands on his shoulders pulling him back. It was Jonathan.

“Are you crazy? Stand back here!” Mike let Jonathan pull him backwards but his eyes never left the manifestation. Will stood next to him and wanted to walk forth as well but decided against it.

Robin stood tall with Lucas and Dustin on each side of her. Lucas told her, “We’re basically adults, you don’t need to hold our hands.”

Robin gripped their hands in hers a little tighter, “This isn’t for you dipshit.” She was no longer privy to things she didn’t understand.

They heard it before they saw it. Gun shots.

The pocket opened up birthing an entirely new scene. Nancy, Joyce, and what appeared to be Hopper, disheveled hair/beard and all, firing at a squad of red coats far off into the distance. Next in view was Steve pushing Max through the hole, then grabbing Nancy and pushing her next. “Come let’s go!” He yelled. Murray did not need to be told twice and he popped over next.

Hopper halted firing and motioned for Joyce to go then pushed Steve in after her. The hole seemed stable so Hopper picked up El like a sack of potatoes and grabbed Billy’s wrist pulling them the rest of the way through. He put El down as she quickly rushed to Billy’s aid in trying to close the gate. They each pushed on one side that the men on the beach stormed the portal, closing in quickly. Hop yelled raising his weapon once more, “Come on damn it! Close it!”

Blood ran freely down both of their noses as they gave it their all. They screamed in unison feeling the walls of the portal finally give way, inching, and finally closing. Both of them collapsed to ground. El sat up on her hip resting on her hands as Billy lay sprawled on the tar of the parking lot. “Holy shit…” he finally breathed out.

Robin’s smile almost split her face down the middle as ran and jumped on Steve in a bear hug, “Holy shit I can’t believe you guys did it!” Steve laughed at her antics and hugged her back. She whispered in his ear, “Go get your damsel in distress.” He let go and sauntered over to Billy who was still and panting.

Mike yelled, “El!” he ran to her and dropped to his knees in front of her, “You are ok? Do you need help?”

Jonathan gathered Nancy in his arms after he welcomed his mother back. Nancy scoffed at Mike, “Does he remember I went?”

Will answered, “He was worried about you too, I promise.” She accepted his hug welcoming her back.

Hopper wanted nothing more than to kick the Wheeler boy in face, lord only knows what’s happened since he’s been gone, but instead picked up El and carried her. “Which rooms are you staying in?” Dustin and Lucas guided him after asking about Billy only out of politeness. Max didn’t think they understood exactly what just happened and who made it happen.

Steve kneeled down next to Billy, hand on his shoulder and thumb caressing lightly. “You ok?” Billy nodded wiping the blood from his hand with the back of his hand and on his pant leg. Robin kneeled down on the other side. “Hi,” she said, “Nice to properly meet you this time.” He raised his other hand and she shook it. Steve wondered just how different Billy was now. He was a true asshole in a past life but after Billy’s apology in November of ’84 and his confession of being gay in January in ’85, then their first kiss one week later, Steve knew that persona was a façade and someone else entirely. Billy was different… passionate and smart behind the bedroom door.

Steve asked him, “Want me to carry you bridal style to a bed?”

“Yes.”

Nevermind…

Steve laughed and pulled Billy to his feet and truly got to look at him. El was right, he was skinny but that could be fixed. Steve would help. The scars were what really made an impression. Steve touched the one on his chest. Billy frowned, self-aware and insecure. Steve fingers moved to his ribs and felt the raised pink skin beneath. “I like them,” he told Billy, “Gives you character.”

He smiled, “Because my shitty personality isn’t enough?”

Robin loved seeing this tender moment but they were the only ones left outside. She clapped her hands on each of their shoulders, “Come on boys, let’s go inside. Maybe get this one a sandwich and shower.”

They walked over to room 16 where everyone had congregated and cramped themselves in except for Murray. He had to use the outside pay phone to make a call to Greg and apologize for losing his boat somewhere in the Georgian Bay and shit out some explanation as to how they got away.

Billy laid down in the bed closest to the window, El in the other bed. Various people either sat on the beds, floors, or chairs. Jonathan and Nancy sat in the chairs holding the others hand over a small round table. Mike walked over to his sister as Hopper guarded El like she was the Holy Grail.

“Hey Nanc…”

She looked up to him.

He cleared his throat, “I’m glad you’re ok. And thanks for helping.”

She sighed, “At least you finally said something to me.”

Mike rolled his eyes, “I don’t have to worry about you Nancy. You’re the toughest person I know. I trust you to make the right decisions and to be able to defend yourself. You’re really smart.” Will smiled from behind him.

That she was not expecting. Here she was thinking her brother put El before her but in reality he cared about them equally in different ways. “Thanks Mike,” she offered. She stood and hugged him. She knew he was finally growing up because he didn’t try to squirm away like he used to. He hugged her back showing her he meant what he said.

Hopper sat on the other side of the bed El was sleeping in. He rubbed his thumb over the back of hand. Joyce picked up the pillow and sat against the headboard in front of him, Will sat by El’s feet.

“I don’t know how to thank you Joyce,” he told her, “Taking her in and caring for her while I was gone. I owe you.”

She smiled waving her hand, “Stop. There was no question about it. I love her too you know.”

“She is easy love, that’s for sure.”

She looked him over, “And you’ll need a place to stay until you officially come back from the dead and get a new place.”

He barked a laughed, “Yea, that’ll be fun. Can’t wait to see the looks on Owens and Klines faces…”

“Kiline’s in jail,” she informed him.

He laughed again, “This is the best day ever,” he looked back to Joyce, her eyes shining in the light filtering through the blinds of the window, “I still owe you though. You’ve gone above and beyond for us.”

Joyce put a put her pointer finger to her mouth in mock contemplation, “Hmmm, how about…. Enzo’s? This Friday at 7 maybe? The one near me in Avon. My treat, I just really want the company.”

He smiled softly, “Of course.”

Billy laid in the second bed, Steve sitting next to him rubbing out a knotted muscle in his forearm. Max sat next to him on his other side where there was more space. Had Billy known this would’ve been some unspoken invitation for Lucas and Dustin to crawl onto the bed he would’ve sprawled out more.

After going over everything that happened, Max explained to them that Billy was like El know. He had freaky powers too and helped open and close the portal. Lucas was amazed, “That was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Dustin heard what she said and honestly that was more believable than what he was watching Steve do. So he bluntly asked, “Steve, what are you doing.”

Said teenager didn’t stop his motions, “Helping.”

Dustin asked, “Why?” and just looked at him confused. Billy looked at Steve like he forgot to take the trash out.

“So, remember when you dated that girl Suzie? Right, and then you were trying to hook me up with Robin?”

Billy asked, “What?” Steve shushed him as obviously nothing came of it.

Dustin nodded. He continued, “Do you remember when I said she wasn’t my type?”

“I thought it was because she was a nerd.”

Robin laughed, “Thanks asshole. I also remember puking in a public bathroom and **you**,” she gestured to Steve, “Confessing you had a crush on me.”

Steve smiled, “I wanted to see if you were really a lesbian or not.”

Billy smiled eyes closed, “Everyone in school talked about a girl named Robin who may or may not be gay.”

And here she thought her secret was well kept.

Dustin offered a quick sorry to her and let Steve continue.

Steve moved his hand further up Billy’s arm, “That’s not at all what I meant. What I meant was… kind of- umm… well…” Billy looked at him almost enjoying him struggling to word-vomit whatever it was he was trying to say.

Lucas cut in, “Dustin, he doesn’t like girls. He likes guys.”

Dustin looked back to Steve betrayed, “Why didn’t you just say that?” Steve didn’t know he would take it so badly.

Robin took this one, “Sometimes it’s harder to say things out loud.”

Dustin looked back to Steve, “You’re one of my best friends; you can trust me. You too, Robin. This doesn’t change anything-“

Steve looked back to Billy’s arm, “I was kind of hoping you’d stop calling me in the middle night and hanging up.”

Billy laughed, “That was me.”

“The fuck dude…”

Lucas asked Max, “Did you know?”

She smiled leaning a little closer to Billy, “No but the tight jeans and obsessive hair habits make a lot more sense now.” Billy didn’t argue that.

She looked down at her brother, “What are you going to do now? Neil still thinks you’re dead.”

“Good. Hop said Owens can hook me up with a new identity and a place not too far from Hawkins.”

“I thought you would want to go back to California,” she said.

Billy looked at Steve, “California is too far away now.” Steve smiled.

All conversation was interrupted as Murray made his way into the room, “Whelp, Greg’s pissed. Who wants pizza?”

Everyone raised their hands.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. The Challenger disaster of 1986 which killed all 7 passengers aboard  
2\. Tony Malone was a telekinetic orphan in the 1975 live action adaptation of Escape to Witch Mountain.  
3\. Route 6 is not the American and Canadian border. It just worked for this purpose.
> 
> Thank you for reading and I hope you can find time to like and comment!  
This may or may not fuel my urge to write parts two and three.


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